The Thing About Med Students

If you sit in any conversation with med students, you'll find that the topic of discussion is probably about med school. Our conversations revolve around study habits and how much we're procrastinating and how difficult that last test was and whether we've started thinking about the Boards and how much we like this or that professor and where the closest coffee venue is to the library. Oh, sure, we'll ask about each other's weekends or how the kids are or whether the weather will change, but we define our weekends by whether we studied or procrastinated and whatever the weather is, we will be dutifully napping in the library. (I admit, the married students with kids probably don't fall into the purview of this post).

Even when talking to my friends who are not medical students and not even remotely interested in medicine or science, I find that if unchecked, I will stray to our last anatomy lab or the weirdness of hantavirus or how behind I am in my reading. It's sad. I don't particularly like how I define my identity as a medical student and let medicine dominate my life this way. I have to always remind myself to maintain perspective, get a breath of fresh air, don't let a single thing - no matter how important or how fascinating - consume my entire life.